Rodriguez
was an outstanding "action" warrior who came to "git it on" - and
"git it on" he did; He was an exciting two-handed fighter could box
or punch, upstairs or down; He was quick, had stamina and was game; During his career,
he won the Welterweight Championship of the
World and theWelterweight Championship of Cuba

Herb Goldman ranked Rodriguez as the #8 All-Time Welterweight; Luis
was inducted into the
International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997

Luis
Rodriguez fought
from 1956 thru 1972 & was a top ranked welterweight & middleweight
from 1959 until the end of his illustrious career. In the 14 years
that he was world rated, he beat an unbelievable amount of top
contenders & world champions. The two main reasons for his present
day obscurity are that he only held the welterweight title for a
brief 47 days & he had the misfortune to have his career coincide
with the equally great Emile Griffith's. They met four times &
Griffith won 3 of 4 by razor thin margins. Emile has been quoted in
a recent Ring article as saying, "Rodriguez moved a lot. He was
always busy, & he threw a lot of combinations. He was more a boxer
than a puncher . . . hit & move. He drove me crazy! I guess we got
to know each other a little bit. Each time was a war, & I had to
make adjustments, always changing my style. Was he an all-time great
fighter? I would say so."

Stylistically, Luis was an extremely long- armed pogo stick,
bouncing around the ring like a kangaroo throwing blinding
combinations in machine gun bursts. How's that for a mixed metaphor!
As Griffith said, he was more boxer than puncher, but he had plenty
of power attested by his 49 kayo's out of 107 career wins. Keep in
mind, many of those kayo's were against the top middleweights of his
era. Rodriguez was never really more than a skinny 147 pounder.

The list of champions & top 10 contenders (getting rated in those
days really meant something ), near & all-time greats he beat is
staggering. Among the champions were Benny "Kid" Paret (twice),
Virgil Akins, Emile Griffith, the very under-rated Curtis Cokes &
Denny Moyer. Some of the other top welters he beat were Isaac Logart,
Johnny Gonsalvez, the also under-rated Frederico Thompson, L.C.
Morgan, Garland Randall, & Charley Austin. At the same time he
campaigned as a welter he'd jump up to 149-150 lb's. & take on &
beat top middleweights in his spare time! A partial list of his
middleweight victims: Wilbert "Skeeter" McClure (twice), Holly Mims,
Percy Manning, Bennie Briscoe (he even beat him in Benny's hometown,
Philadelphia, by decision no less!), George Benton, Ernie Buford,
Jimmy Lester, Tony Mundine, Vicente Rondon, Gene Armstrong, Tom
Bethea, Joey Giambra & Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. Awesome.

Yet, even boasting such a sterling record, Luis Manuel is today
relegated to obscurity. As I mentioned before, the short title reign
& the crucial crossroads losses to Griffith are the main culprits.
Hank Kaplan suggests another; as he describes it: "Rodriguez had a
beautiful jab; it was so fluid. & he had this little defensive
motion where he made you miss by inches. He fought everybody. . .
remember he was beating Nino Benvenuti when he got caught by a left
hook & was so unspectacular, that's why I think he's not remembered
these days."

The Ol' Spit Bucket respectfully begs to differ. I must have seen
Rodriguez fight at least 30 times. Mostly on TV & video tape (I saw
him live twice); as he was a regular fixture on the Friday night
broadcasts in the early 60's, before Gillette pulled their
sponsorship. I found him to be an exciting if highly unorthodox
boxer. When he fought the feared Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, he bipped
& bopped him into utter bafflement. At one point Carter was so
enraged by the futility of trying to nail Rodriguez; he bull rushed
him into a corner, picked him up & actually tried to fling him over
the ropes!

What most fans remember (if they do at all), are his losses to
Emile Griffith. Those two guys were so evenly matched that their
fights were boring. In some ways their fights were reminiscent of
the Leonard vs. Benitez bout. While highly dramatic & absorbing to
aficionados, to the casual fan they were a snore. Luis never went
into a fight looking for a knockout. Yet, when he got a fighter
hurt, he was as deadly & quick striking as a cobra. Otherwise he was
content to go the distance. I never once saw him brawl. Guile not
testosterone was his thang ... He was also blessed with an iron
mandible. His three kayo losses were all at the tail end of his long
career. The opponents were the great Nino Benvenuti & the near-great
Curtis Cokes; both who were in their primes. The third was to
journeyman banger Rafael Gutierrez, when Luis was on his last legs.

It gladden's what's left of the Ol' Spit Bucket's heart to see an
article like the Battle of the Legends between Jose Napoles & Luis
Manuel Rodriguez in the December '95 issue of Ring Magazine. The
three experts chosen to evaluate this particular dream match had
peerless credentials. Angelo Dundee (who trained & managed
Rodriguez), Emile Griffith (who fought Rodriguez four times &
Napoles once) & one of boxing's two foremost historians (the other
being Herb Goldman), the esteemed Hank Kaplan. Considering what a
great fighter Napoles was, I think it's really telling that all
three of the "judges" picked Rodriguez to win handily. Kaplan,
actually writes that Rodriguez was probably the most underrated
lighter weight fighter of the past half-century! Wow! Hank Kaplan
throws undo praise around about as often as Newt Gingrich attends
Lollapalooza to mosh in the pit.

Kid Gavilan & Jose Napoles are generally rated as the two greatest
Cuban welterweights. But take a good look at Rodriguez's career
record & Gavilan's & Napoles' pale in comparison. In fact the Ol'
Spit Bucket would put his money on Louis against any welter or jr.
middleweight of the past 50 years with the exception of both Sugar
Rays' & Emile Griffith, who seemingly had his number. Tommy Hearns &
Mike McCallum would be very tough calls ... I can hear the gnashing
of teeth & the howls of disdain from readers screaming "Hey you
dumb! ##X**#XX! what about Duran! Basilio! Curry! Palomino! Napoles!
Benvenuti!" Well, Benvenuti did kayo Luis, very late in his career,
when he was way past his prime. Even so, Rodriguez was winning the
bout against a peaking Nino Benvenuti, when he was caught with a
picture perfect left hook in the 11th round. Nevertheless, I stand
firm. I believe he would have found a way to beat any of them.

A footnote to Rodriguez's story: Few are aware of it, but Luis was
a huge influence, in & out of the ring on the young, impressionable,
Cassius Clay. & Both were trained by the venerable Angelo Dundee.
The most obvious influences were the beautiful snake like jabs they
both possessed. They also had somewhat similar styles in the ring:
The constant peripatetic movement & blazing flurries. They also
shared the unusual ability to inflict severe damage while
backpedaling. Another was their similar personality's outside the
ring. Luis' happy go lucky ways, infectious grin & constant chatter
with the press & fans fit right in with young Cassius' modus
operandi.

Luis Manuel Rodriguez was an artist of the fistic canvas -- a true
master of his chosen craft.